Watching Russian Air & Sea Activity

[AdamG]

MOSCOW, November 26. /TASS/. The cutting-edge frigate Admiral Kasatonov under construction for the Russian Navy at the St. Petersburg-based Severnaya Verf Shipyard will enter sea trials in December 2018, Russian Navy Commander-in-Chief Vladimir Korolyov said on Monday.

The lead warship of this series, the Admiral Gorshkov, was delivered to the Navy in the summer of 2018 and the construction of two more frigates (the Admiral Golovko and the Admiral Isakov) continues at the slipways of the Severnaya Verf Shipyard in St. Petersburg.

Project 22350 frigates are the Russian Navy’s most advanced warships in their class. These frigates displace about 5,000 tonnes and can develop a speed of 29 knots. They are armed with Oniks and Kalibr missiles and the Poliment-Redut air defense missile system.

The large amphibious assault ship Pyotr Morgunov was laid down at the Yantar Shipyard on the Baltic coast on June 11, 2015 and floated out on May 25 this year. By the Navy’s decision, this series will consist of only two warships: the lead ship Ivan Gren, which has been under construction for over 20 years due to the Project’s numerous adjustments and the first serial-produced (the second-built) large amphibious assault ship Pyotr Morgunov.

Project 11711 warships displace about 6,000 tonnes and are the largest surface combatants built to date. The previous Project 1171 ‘Tapir’ large amphibious assault ship displaces 4,300 tonnes and the most numerous ships of this class in the Russian Navy (Project 775) have a displacement of 4,400 tonnes.

http://tass.com/defense/1032678

[AdamG]

Russia says it has built a new barracks for troops on a disputed chain of islands near Japan and vowed to build more facilities for armoured vehicles, prompting a diplomatic protest from Tokyo. Russia’s Ministry of Defence said on Monday it planned to shift troops next week into four housing complexes on two of the four disputed islands, known as the Southern Kurils in Russia and the Northern Territories in Japan. Japan’s defence ministry says 3,500 Russian troops are deployed on the two larger islands as part of a military buildup.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...-a8689026.html

[AdamG]

Bonus - social media OSINT*.

A warship of Russia's Northern fleet entered the Black Sea on Wednesday, January 9. The vessel in question is the Severomorsk (619) anti-submarine Udaloy-class destroyer, according to Andriy Klymenko, an expert with the Ukraine-based Maidan of Foreign Affairs Foundation. "For the first time since the start of Crimea occupation, a warship of the Russian Northern fleet – not just a landing ship of another fleet but the one that is part of the Russian navy's main strike force – has entered the Black Sea waters," * the expert wrote on Facebook, also posting the relevant photos of the destroyer.

https://www.unian.info/politics/1040...sea-photo.html

[davidbfpo]

From the reliable Barents Observer website; the full title being: 'Norway tired of Russia's electronic warfare troubling civilian navigation: “Unacceptable and risky”and sub-titled 'Military forces on the heavily militarized Kola Peninsula have blinded GPS signals in Norwegian air space five times over the last 17 months.'
Link:https://thebarentsobserver.com/en/se...able-and-risky

[AdamG]

From January 23rd

And despite the nation's economic crisis, Maduro welcomed the deployment of two Russian Tu-160 strategic bombers. The Russian aircraft, capable of carrying nuclear weapons, landed in Caracas last month in a move designed to show Moscow's support of Venezuela's socialist regime. The Pentagon swiftly criticized the Russian deployment of warplanes to Venezuela.

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/23/vene...e-country.html

[davidbfpo]

A suitable spot for this. Partly explained:

This reading list is necessarily selective. It includes key texts, classic analysis, and work that illuminates all important background. It is a “live” document, and will be amended and updated as appropriate.There are currently large gaps in the literature, particularly in the study of Russian defence and armed forces and – even more so – the Russian security and intelligence services. Some older work is therefore included that will hopefully be useful for providing essential background. The reading list is intended to be as accessible as possible. Therefore, all the works are in English, the articles are available to download for free (without subscription), and the books are in print and available tobuy online, mostly at a decent price.

Link to PDF 7pgs:https://static1.squarespace.com/stat...t+4+Jan+19.pdf

[AdamG]

Two Russian warships have been fitted with an unusual defensive weapon that reportedly causes its victims to become disorientated, hallucinate and even want to vomit.

The non lethal weapon, called 5P-42 Filin, is described as a “visual optical interference” device and is designed to temporarily incapacitate its targets.

According to RIA Novosti, Russia’s domestic state news agency, the Filin device has been deployed on the Russian naval frigates Admiral Gorshkov and Admiral Kasatono.

The weapon fires a beam similar to a strobe light that affects the victim’s eyesight and ability to look at and concentrate on a target, according to local media reports. The non lethal device is said to be able to temporarily blind its target.

https://www.news.com.au/technology/i...735a5d1ad9848c

See also
http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone...d-war-missions